Gardaí investigating assault of referee at Clare U15 game

Vivienne Clarke

The chairman of Clare GAA County Board, Kieran Keating, has expressed disappointment at an incident at an Under-15 game on Monday evening when a referee was assaulted.

“It's just very disappointing in this day and age, when there's been so much done to improve behaviour around the pitch. The Football Review Committee brought in a number of new rules, including with regard to interactions with the referee.

"And they certainly had seemed to improve football and so on. So it feels like a step back to old times, and we thought we'd seen the end of those kind of things,” he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.

Gardaí are investigating the incident which occurred shortly after 8.40 pm following a U-15 game between Lissycasey and Kilrush-Kilimer.

It’s understood that the referee, a man in his 50s, sustained injuries. In a separate incident at the same venue, a male youth is also reported to have sustained injuries.

Gardaí said they are aware of footage circulating on social media and that investigations are ongoing.

Keating said the county board would try to ensure such an incident did not happen again. “And the message we'll send out is that we won't tolerate it.”

He had spoken with the referee, who sustained an injury to his lip and ended up on the ground.

“We'll get the report, review what footage we have, interview those who closely witnessed it, and we'll make our findings based on that.”

The referee is hoping to return to duty this week, which was good news, said Keating.

“So many of our referees do so well for us, week in, week out, day in, day out, attend our games, take charge, and in short, our games can go ahead.”

There would now be two strands to the investigation into the incident – one by the gardaí, which would determine if there had been criminal activity or civil disobedience, while in the meantime, the GAA would follow procedures for dealing with infractions.

“These types of infractions against referees, against officials, are the most hideous in our books, I suppose, aside from child welfare things. They're the worst that can occur. So they're treated quite penally, let's say, in our codes and in our rules, and we'll make sure, obviously, that we deal with those perpetrations.”

Potential penalties include lengthy suspensions of up to 48 weeks for a player and 96 weeks for a mentor or a sideline official; penalties were double for under age incidents.